Concubinage in the Muslim world refers to the mostly historical practice of Muslim men entering into sexual relationships with women outside the institution of marriage. This mainly involved enslaved women,: "Concubines in Islamic society, with few exceptions, were slaves. Sex with your own property was not considered to be adultery (zina). Owners purchased the sexuality of the enslaved along with their bodies." though there are exceptional cases involving free women.: "Timurid sources from the later period list numerous women as royal concubines who were not slaves.": "The disregard for Muslim legal codes regulating marriage and concubinage did not go uncommented on by contemporaries. In his memoirs, Babur disapproved of the practice of taking free Muslim women as concubines [in the Tamurid dynasty], deeming the relationships to be unlawful."
Historically it was common practice in societies of the Mediterranean and the ancient Near East for the owners of slaves to have sexual relations with individuals considered their property. This fact persisted, with distinct legal differences, among the three major Abrahamic religions from antiquity. Standing in contrast to modern interpretations of Islamic law, traditionalist interpretations historically permitted men to have sexual relations with their female slaves, while at the same time affording affected female slaves a variety of different rights and privileges, whose scope varied over different periods. An example is the status of umm al-walad, which could be granted to a concubine who gave birth to a child whose paternity was acknowledged by the slave owner. In certain times and places, this status could prevent the concubine from being sold, and provided other benefits.
Concubinage was widely practiced throughout the Umayyad, Abbasid, Ottoman, Timurid and Mughal Empires. The prevalence within royal courts also resulted in many Muslim rulers over the centuries being born the children of concubines, including the great majority of early Abbasid caliphs and several Shia imams. The practice of concubinage declined with the abolition of slavery.
Today, the institution of slavery has been officially abolished across the Muslim world and the vast majority of modern Muslims and Islamic scholars consider slavery, including slave-concubinage, to be unacceptable practices.
Characteristics
Classifications of concubinage often define practices in Islamic societies as a distinct variant. In one reading, there are three cultural patterns of concubinage: European, Islamic and Asian. Concubinage has also been categorised in terms of form and function, which in the Islamic world varied between times and places. The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology gives four distinct forms of concubinage, three of which are applicable to the Muslim world: 'elite concubinage', where concubine ownership was primarily related to social status, such as under the Umayyads; royal concubinage, where concubines became consorts to the ruler and perpetuated the royal bloodline and politics and reproduction were deeply intertwined, including under the Abbasids and in the Ottoman Empire; and concubinage as a patriarchal function, where concubines were of low status and the children of concubines became permanently inferior to the children of wives, such as in Mughal India.
The expansion of various Muslim dynasties resulted in the acquisitions of concubines, through purchase, gifts from other rulers, and captives of war. To have a large number of concubines became a symbol of status. While Muslim soldiers in the early Islamic conquests were given female captives as a reward for military participation, they were later frequently purchased and men were permitted to have as many concubines as they could afford. As slaves for pleasure were expensive, they were typically the preserve of privileged elites.
The concubines of Islamic rulers could achieve considerable power, and often enjoyed higher status than other slaves. Abu Hanifa and others argued for the extension of Islamic modesty practices to concubines, recommending that the concubine be established in the home and their chastity be protected from friends or kin. Most Islamic schools of thought restricted concubinage to a relationship where the female slave was required to be monogamous to her master. While scholars exhorted masters to treat their slaves equally, a master was allowed to show favoritism towards a concubine. Some scholars recommended holding a banquet (walima) to celebrate the concubinage relationship, though this was not required by the teachings of Islam.
In slave-owning societies, most, but not all, concubines were slaves. In the Muslim world, as in about one-third of non-Islamic slave-holding societies, a concubine was typically freed after giving birth to her master's child. In Islamic culture, a slave who bore a child to a free man was known as an umm al-walad, could not be sold, and, in most circumstances, at her owner's death, was freed. The children of concubines in Islamic societies were generally declared as legitimate. Among societies that did not legally require the manumission of concubines, it was often done anyway.
Almost all Abbasid caliphs were born to concubines and several Twelver Shia imams were also born to concubines. The Ottoman sultans also appeared to have preferred concubinage to marriage, and for a time all royal children were born of concubines. Over time, the concubines of the Imperial Harem came to exercise a considerable degree of influence over Ottoman politics. The consorts of Ottoman sultans were often neither Turkish, nor Muslim by birth, and it has been argued that this was intentional so as to limit the political leverage a concubine might possess as compared to a princess or a daughter of the local elite. Ottoman sultans also appeared to have only one son with each concubine, and after a concubine gave birth to a son, would no longer have intercourse with them. This also limited the power of each concubine and son. Even so, many concubines developed social networks, and accumulated personal wealth, both of which allowed them to rise in terms of social status. The practice declined with the abolition of slavery, starting in the 19th century.
Islamic legal positions
Enslavement
The enslavement of other Muslims was expressly forbidden by Islamic jurists. However, in times of war, non-Muslims who were captured in battle could be enslaved, and the population of a conquered territory could also be enslaved, paving the way for concubinage. During the early Muslim conquests, capture in war was a major source of concubines, but this source declined to a very small proportion later on. Enslavement was intended both as a form of humiliation to the defeated for previous or continuing disbelief, and as a debt. However, non-Muslims could not be enslaved if they were either residents of a Muslim state (dhimmis) or protected foreign visitors (musta'min). The sexual relationship between a concubine and her master was viewed as a debt upon the woman until she gave birth to her master's child and the master's later death. Some men purchased female slaves, whereas Muslim soldiers in the early Islamic conquests were given female captives as a reward for military participation. Men were permitted to have as many concubines as they could afford, but as slaves for pleasure were expensive, they were typically an elite privilege.
At the same time, the Qur'an and the hadith traditions hailed the manumission of slaves as a virtue that would be rewarded in the afterlife. Some jurists argued that prisoners were either to be enslaved or killed. Others maintained that a Muslim military commander could choose between unconditionally releasing, ransoming or enslaving these war captives. Later on in Muslim history, the purchase of slaves from outside the Muslim world became the most important source of concubines. Hereditary slavery, though technically possible, was rarely practiced in the Muslim world. Slaves by descent are those that are born to slave mothers. Although a slave girl bearing children to her master bore free children, a slave owner marrying off his female slave to someone else would remain the master of any children born from that marriage.
Exceptions Despite the Islamic prohibition, there were historical instances where Muslims enslaved Muslims from other ethnic groups. In the 12th century, amid internecine war in al-Andalus, the Umayyad caliph Muhammad II of Córdoba ordered that Berber women in Córdoba be captured and sold. The Berber Almohads in turn captured and sold Umayyad women. There are also reports of Ottoman generals enslaving Mamluk wives and girls in the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517), and in 1786–87, in the region of modern-day Chad, Muslim women and children from the Sultanate of Bagirmi were likewise enslaved by the ruler of Wadai around 1800.
Social rights Islamic law obliged slave owners to provide their female slaves with food, clothing, and shelter, and gave female slaves protection from sexual exploitation by anyone who was not their owner. If she bore her master a child and if he accepted paternity, then she could obtain the position of an umm al-walad. Separately, if someone bought a woman with child, the two could not be separated until, according to Ibn Abi Zayd, the child was six years old. However, while slave concubines could rise to positions of influence, these positions did not legally protect them from forced labour, forced marriage and forced sexual activity, and even elite slaves were still traded as chattel.
As sexual commodities, female slaves were, in some historical periods, not allowed to cover themselves in the fashion of free women. The Caliph Umar prohibited slave girls from resembling free women and forbade them from covering their face. Slave women were also not required to cover their arms, hair or legs below the knees. By contrast, Myrne writes that Islamic jurists elsewhere required female slaves to cover their whole body (except face and hands). There is disagreement over what Hanafi jurists allowed: according to Ibn Abidin most Hanafi scholars did not allow the exposure of a female slave's body (including chest or back), but Myrne writes they allowed this in the case of potential male buyers. Amira Bennison writes that, during the Abbasid period, male buyers could not in practice examine female slaves (except her face and hands), but could request her examination by other women.
In accordance with their lesser status, if a slave fornicated they received less punishment than a free woman. Female slaves could also be traded freely among many men, with few, if any, apparent restrictions. While bearing a master's child could lead to freedom for a slave-girl, the motive that this gave female slaves to have sex with their owners was a cause of regular opposition to concubinage from free wives, and early moral stories depicted wives as the victims of concubinage. While a free Muslim woman was considered to be a man's honour, a slave-girl was merely property and not a man's honour.